Article snippet: WASHINGTON (AP) — In his first public appearance since several women said he had behaved physically inappropriately, former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday made light of his tendency to be affectionate while delivering a nostalgia-drenched speech aimed at winning back the white, blue collar workers who backed Trump in 2016. He criticized the president as ‘‘locked in the past.’’ But Biden, 76, evoked his own youth and even the life of his father in his speech to members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Biden recounted a time when he said the dignity of teachers, sanitation and electrical line workers was treasured and the nation felt it had a common purpose. Saying his father, a salesman, told him to respect everyone, Biden alluded to various ‘‘sophisticated friends’’ who don’t get the significance of treating blue-collar laborers as equals.’’ ‘‘All you’re looking for is to be treated fairly, with respect, with some dignity,’’ Biden said. ‘‘Because you matter.’’ Biden also seemed to take on his own party by noting he'd gotten criticism from the left for saying Democrats had to work with Republicans to get things done, and in defending President Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act, which some Democratic presidential aspirants want to replace with a single-payer system. ‘‘We need to build on it,’’ Biden said of the law. ‘‘What we can’t do is blow it up.’’ In a humorous yet pointed reference to his own current controversy, at the ... Link to the full article to read more